Botallack

Botallack, on the far west coast of Cornwall near St Just, is one of the most dramatic mining landscapes in Britain. The engine houses of the Crown Mines cling to the cliff face above the Atlantic, remnants of an industry that extended its workings beneath the sea floor. For me, Botallack represents the ultimate expression of Cornwall's themes: nature and industry, beauty and destruction, what endures and what is reclaimed.

This collection was among my earliest major bodies of work, and it established the signature approach I continue to develop: using earth pigments from the site itself, building layered compositions that evoke geological time, and treating the industrial ruins not as objects of nostalgia but as living participants in an ongoing landscape.

Pieces from this collection appeared in my first major solo museum exhibition 'This Land' at The Cornwall Museum and Gallery in 2023.